Breathe
by carez123
Summary: A short OS about terrifying circumstances, hope, and family. Rated T for references to suicide. Enjoy.


It was the middle of the night when she went into the bathroom, shut and locked the door, and retrieved the pills from the cabinet behind the mirror. She was smart enough to tell apart which ones would kill her if she overdosed and which would just knock her out for a bit too long.

She reached for a bottle of the former.

She willed her hands to stop trembling as she attempted to open the bottle. "Ugh," she grunted. "Open, you stupid thing."

She backed up and sat herself down on the edge of the bathtub. Emotion overwhelmed her suddenly and she choked out a sob as she struggled with the bottle cap.

"Ugh!" she groaned louder. "Open!"

A strangled, frustrated scream ripped from her throat and she threw the pill bottle across the bathroom hard enough for it to hit the wall and finally pop open, spilling pills everywhere.

She broke down into pure, unadulterated sobs and sank from the bathtub edge to the floor, hiding her face in her trembling hands.

It was a few seconds later when her father broke down the bathroom door, eyes wild with fear. "Are you okay?" he demanded.

She looked up and sniffled, unable just yet to speak.

Her father then took a moment to fully intake his surroundings. "Squirt…" He looked at the spilled pills.

His eyes, his doughy, loving, puppy dog-like eyes which seemed so out of place on a sturdy middle-aged man such as himself but she always loved anyway, bore into her in a way that only made her drop her head and cry harder.

"Squirt…" He came to squat before her. "What were you trying to do?"

She sucked in a shaky breath and said in a strained voice, "I'm damaged goods, Daddy. I'm worthless."

Tears began to gather in his eyes and her heart broke ten times over. "That's not true, baby. It's not."

"It is!" she yelled. "It's true! Why not just end it now? It's be better for everyone involved!"

"Why?" her dad pleaded. "Why, Christine?"

She took another deep, shaky breath and tried to level her voice. "I'm not stupid, Dad. I know how cancer works. Soon my hair's going to fall out and I'll be throwing up all the time, and that's just from chemo…and even then, I'm probably gonna die anyway."

"Don't say that," he told her with teary eyes, looking decades older than he was. He pulled her into a tight hug. "It's all gonna be okay."

"No!" she sobbed, embracing him tightly. "It's not!" She pulled away. "Twenty-five percent. I have a twenty-five percent chance of living, Dad. One in four odds. Last I checked, that isn't very good."

He grasped her hands tightly. "We'll beat this, Squirt. Together." He smiled a sad smile. "I know you, Christine. You're way too stubborn to just die."

She sniffed and smiled despite herself. "I wish I could believe you, Daddy. I really do."

He placed a large, calloused hand on her cheek. "You don't have to. You just have to believe in yourself."

At that, she outright snorted. "I know we're having a moment here, Daddy, but you don't have to get romance-movie-quality corny."

"Hey, it made you smile, didn't it?"

At that moment, her mother was at the doorway to the bathroom, taking in the scene. Parker and Henry, her brothers, peeked in from over her shoulders.

"What happened, Booth?" her mom asked, tone demanding but eyes fearful.

Her father sighed and stood. "I'll explain outside. C'mon, Bones. Henry, go back to bed, okay pal? And, Parker…" he trailed off, looking from his older son to look pointedly at Christine.

Henry, all of six years old, gave her one quick glance with those same doughy brown eyes of her father's and disappeared from the bathroom, her parents following suit.

Parker stepped into the bathroom. Parker, at twenty-three, was visiting home from graduate school for spring break. She'd addressed him in the letter that sat on her bed along with everyone else dear to her.

"Hey, Brace-Face," he said, using the moniker that was now pointless since she'd had her braces removed two years ago.

She sniffled and pulled herself to her feet. "Hi Parker. So…I just tried to kill myself."

He nodded. "I noticed."

They were both quiet for a moment. Then Parker spoke again.

"Listen, it's…" he checked his watch. "Three in the morning. Why don't we go back to bed and talk about this in the morning?"

She smiled again. "I don't think anyone in this house is going back to sleep tonight." She winced as her head began to pound.

Parker cocked his head. "Fair enough." When he saw her wince, he went to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Come on, Brace-Face. I think you, me, Bones and Dad need to have a talk."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Abrupt ending, I know, but I couldn't figure out a way to end it, so I just left it there. A bit dark by my standards, and this is like, the second or third thing I've posted this week, soo…yay! R&R with your thoughts :)**


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